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Reproduced by permission of Hampton InsHtute 
ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN 




Reprodiued by permission of The Review of Reviews Company 

ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN 



IN MEMORY 

OF 

ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN 

TRUE FRIEND 

PATRIOTIC CITIZEN 

UNOFFICIAL STATESMAN 

CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 



SrUiA^ m^^ 



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Privately Published 
1016 



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Copyright, 1916, by 
HENRY E. FRIES 



MAY 12 1916 



©CI.A428a70 



PREFACE 

Everlasting and ever-widening will be the influences 
set in motion in the South, during the crucial period of 
its educational reconstruction, by the Southern Educa- 
tion Board, the Conference for Education in the South 
and their cooperative agencies. The inspiring, inform- 
ing, and directing spirit of all these was Robert C. 
Ogden. For his generous aid in money, in time, in 
thought, in heart, so unsparingly and so modestly given, 
for his helpful sympathy, his stimulative advice and 
encouragement, and all his unselfish service during a 
long period of years to the cause of education in the 
South for both races, the people of the South, and es- 
pecially the people of North Carolina, owe him a debt of 
love and gratitude. 

This booklet has been prepared by grateful friends as 
a memorial to him, as a medium of information to our 
people about his life and character and his work for 
them, and as a means of affording those who desire it 
an opportunity to express their appreciation of his 
services by the purchase of this booklet, the proceeds 
from the sale of which will be applied to aiding a part of 

[3] 



the educational work of the South in which he was 
deeply interested. 

Through the work which he inspired and directed, 
through the funds which he contributed and raised for 
financing the Educational Campaigns for local taxation, 
and for all other sorts of school improvement in North 
Carolina and other states, Robert C. Ogden was a 
benefactor of every child, every teacher, every citizen 
of this state. 

I heartily commend to all this booklet and the pur- 
pose for which it has been prepared and to which the 
proceeds of its sale will be devoted. I sincerely trust 
that there will be a hearty response from all our people, 
and I earnestly bespeak the assistance of all superin- 
tendents of schools, teachers, and children in the sale 
of so good a book for so good a purpose. It is the 
inspiring story of the life and work of a wise, patriotic 
philanthropist in education. 

J. Y. JOYNER, 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
Raleigh, N. C, February 8, 1916. 



[4] 



IN COMMEMORATION OF 

ROBERT C. OGDEN 

The Southern Education Board approaches 
with hesitation and with reverence the duty 
of placing on its records a tribute to the 
memory of Robert C. Ogden. No words can 
fittingly express the sentiments of respect and 
regard felt toward him by the members of this 
body, or their estimate of his value as a man 
and as a citizen. To an extent unusual in any 
organization he incarnated the whole Board. 
He was its organizer and its only President 
during the years of his life. It was his high 
conception of duty and privilege that held 
the Board to its task and rendered the results 
of its labors so remarkably successful. He 
mapped the course, he led the way, he in- 
spirited each follower, and by his life and death 
he consecrated the work. 

A review of the years passed shows that the 
activities of this Board have been directed 
to various ends — to educational campaigns 
that have aroused one state after another, to 

[5] 



needed changes in educational legislation, 
to general improvement in rural schools, and 
to the elevation of rural life. Rarely has any 
work so far-reaching been originated and car- 
ried through with so small an outlay of ma- 
terial resources. The wisdom of those who 
have directed these activities has been justified 
by wonderful results. Mr. Ogden was re- 
sponsible for the selection of these workers. 
His insight recognized the tasks and chose the 
agents best suited for their accomplishment. 
By the power of his personal influence he held 
the Southern Board together, and directed 
the energies of busy men to the unselfish 
duties which he assumed. That same won- 
derful personality impressed itself upon the 
nation at large. Through the Conference for 
Education in the South he touched the great 
hearts of the North and the South, and put 
upon the nation's conscience a universal need. 
All this was done so quietly, so simply, that we 
wonder still at the results. Not by persua- 
sion, not by fanatical insistence, but by the 
contagion of his own personal devotion, he 
rallied men from every section, from every 
walk or station in life, rich and poor, high and 
lowly, white and black, to the cause which he 
advocated. 

The South owes him a peculiar debt. He 
[6] 



understood the temper and temperament of 
its people. He admired its strength, and 
was kind in his judgment of weaknesses. He 
understood its problems and sought a rational 
solution of them. Not by patronizing aloof- 
ness and cold counsel, but by personal aid and 
warm sympathy, he made his contributions to 
the uplift of a whole nation. 

Through his efforts our national life has 
been strengthened, brothers once estranged 
have become united, service feebly performed 
has been rendered efficient, and racial cooper- 
ation has taken the place of racial conflicts. 

Robert C. Ogden was a man of high ideals 
and far-reaching vision. To great purposes he 
consecrated his life with a devotion unsur- 
passed. By the compelling power of personal 
friendship he lifted others to the high plane 
on which he lived, and joined other hands to 
his in noblest service. 

Therefore, we, the members of the Southern 
Education Board, dedicate to him these pages 
in our records. The written words but feebly 
attest our love and our loss. The record of his 
life is the best part of our institutional history. 
His memory is an inspiration, the conscious- 
ness of his continued love and friendship 
our comfort still, his work the foundation on 
which we must forever build. Who seeks his 

[7] 



monument will find it both in national achieve- 
ment and in the consecration of many hearts. 
To the God of the nations we render 
thanks for the life and for the memory of 
Robert C. Ogden. 

Edwin A. Alderman 
A, P. Bourland 
Sidney J. Bowie 
Wallace Buttrick 
Frank R. Chambers 
Philander P. Claxton 
Charles W. Dabney 
George S. Dickerman 
J. H. Dillard 
Henry E. Fries 
Hollis B. Frissell 
John M. Glenn 
David F. Houston 
J. H. Kirkland 
S. C. Mitchell 
Walter H. Page 
George Foster Peabody 
Wickliffe Rose 
Albert Shaw 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN 

Born in Philadelphia, Penna., June 20, 1836. M. A., Yale, 1902; 
LL. D., Tulane, 1903; L. H. D., Union College, New York, 1909. 
Married Ellen Elizabeth Lewis, of Brooklyn, March 1, 1860 (died 
December 3, 1909). Member of the firm of John Wanamaker, 1885- 
1907. Retired April 1, 1907. President of the Board of Trustees 
of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. President of the Direc- 
tors of Union Theological Seminary, New York. Elected President 
of the Conference for Education in the South, June, 1900; elected 
President of the Southern Education Board, April, 1901 ; continued in 
both offices until his death, at Kennebunkport, Maine, August 6, 1913. 

Dr. H. B. Frissell thus writes: 

On a spring day in 1860, when Robert Ogden was 
twenty-four, an impulsive, keen-thinking youth of 
twenty-one, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of 
American missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands, called 
on him with a letter of introduction. These two high- 
spirited young men, a few years out of boyhood, joined 
hands then in a friendship that lasted thirty-three 
years, until the death of the younger, in 1893. 

Young Armstrong left Williams College to fight for 
the Union, was given command of a negro regiment, at 
the close of the war became agent of the Freedman*s 
Bureau in Virginia, and in 1868 taught fifteen negro 

[9] 



students to make bricks and read books on an old plan- 
tation two miles from Old Point Comfort, Va. 

Thus began the Hampton Institute, and thus, in 
1874, Mr. Ogden received and accepted an invitation 
to become a Trustee of a far-reaching experiment in 
education. For forty years he was Trustee of Hamp- 
ton, and for twenty years he was President of the Trus- 
tees. The school grew from the old plantation house 
with fifteen students and two teachers to an industrial 
village of 140 buildings along the shores of Hampton 
Roads, where 900 men and women of two races are 
trained as teachers, tradesmen, and farmers to serve 
and lead their people. 

It was through Mr. Ogden's interest in Hampton and 
the education of the negro that this man of business and 
ideals came to understand the heavy burdens and pecul- 
iar educational problems of the South. Fifteen years 
ago Mr. Ogden threw himself into the great campaign 
of the Southern leaders to bring new life and light into 
the South; the work of building up old Commonwealths. 

In the early nineties Southern leaders of education 
were laboring earnestly in separate states to bring- the 
light to all the people. But not until the spring of 
1898 was there an alliance of these rebuilders of old 
Commonwealths . 

It became clear in 1898, at this first Capon Springs 
conference, that to accomplish the greatest good in the 
Southern educational field the North and South must 
enter into closer relations. Northern delegates felt that 

[10] 



the South had been bearing heroically a heavy bur- 
den in the establishment of a double set of common 
schools for the two races within its borders, and that 
since the Federal Government had given the South 
practically no assistance, the North should help in a 
fraternal spirit, not to meddle or interfere, but to ''stand 
by" as fellow-citizens of a common country. 

This feeling, first voiced by IVIr. Ogden and others in 
the leisurely atmosphere and amid the quiet beauty of 
Capon Springs, continued to be the undercurrent of the 
Conference for Education in the South through the 
sixteen years of its existence, whether meeting in other 
quiet country places or amid the bustle and rush of 
large cities like Richmond and Memphis. 

The battle cry of the conference became "a common 
school education for the children of all the people," and 
tlie meetings were given to practical planning for the 
accomplishment of this colossal task. 

The genius of Mr. Ogden, early elected President of 
the Conference, fused and directed the ardent enthusi- 
asm of the men of two sections for the betterment of 
the South until his death. Into his task the leader of 
the conference threw himseK heart and mind. At his 
own expense and a cost wholly disproportionate to his 
means, Robert C. Ogden took trainload after trainload 
of Northern men and women, year after year, to the 
South, until most of the Southern States had heard a 
message full of help and hope. 

To Winston-Salem, N. C, to Athens, Ga., Richmond, 
[11] 



Va., Birmingham, Ala., Columbia, S. C, Lexington, 
Ky., Pinehurst, N. C, Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., 
Little Rock, Ark., Jacksonville, Fla., and Nashville, 
Tenn., came the men who, with ever-increasing effect, 
generaled the long battle front of educational advance 
throughout the South. 



[12] 



ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN* 

AN APPRECIATION 
By Edwin A. Alderman 

President of the University of Virginia 
[From the Southern Workman, January, 1916] 

In the summer of 1901 I received a telegram from 
Robert C. Ogden asking me to come to him for a con- 
ference at his summer home at Kennebunkport, Maine. 
I accepted the invitation and found awaiting me there 
not only Mr. Ogden but my old friend and colleague, 
Charles D. Mclver of North Carolina. This meeting 
was my first acquaintance with Mr. Ogden, and my first 
reunion for a long period with my old co-worker, Mclver. 
Mr. Ogden was then well past the meridian of life, but 
abounding in physical vigor and as eager an idealist as 
ever dreamed of a better world. The impression he 
made upon me then is the same I have of him tonight, 
save that it is deepened and heightened by experience 
of him and affection for him. Here was a man vital 
in body, pure of spirit, keen of mind, happy of heart, 
and utterly given over to thought of unselfish helpful- 

*Address at the Ogden Memorial Meeting, Richmond, Virginia, 
Friday evening, November 26th, under the auspices of the CoiJperative 
Education Association of Virginia. 

fl3l 



ness to individuals and masses. He bundled us both 
into a canoe and carried us, with a swift, sure stroke, up 
the deep, quiet river. Under the pines, upon a hillside 
by the river, we spent the day discussing the organiza- 
tion, the purpose, and the personnel of the Southern 
Education Board — an expansion of the old Capon 
Springs Conference made remarkable by the participa- 
tion of men like Bishop Dudley, J. L. M. Curry, William 
L, Wilson, Barnes Sears, Mr. Ogden himseK, and many 
other great names. 

In the autumn of that year the Board was formally 
organized, and its great spiritualizing adjunct, the Con- 
ference for Education in the South, became more 
active. Mr. Ogden became the President of the Board 
and the supervising director of the Conference; andunder 
the guidance of his insight and enthusiasm the Board 
entered upon a remarkable career of national usefulness. 

The Southern Education Board was a natural off- 
spring of the activities of the Peabody Foundation. 
The great need of the time in Southern life was the for- 
mation of a powerful public opinion for popular educa- 
tion. Public opinion, under any form of government, 
in such great social movements, must be continually 
strengthened and enlightened. This Board took up 
that task, and may be said to have accomplished in its 
short life a great total with the smallest expenditure of 
money of any agency of our day. So untechnical and 
inspirational were the influences, that it is difficult to 
describe them in any brief space. It had no funds to 

[14] 



distribute to educational institutions. It sought to 
ally itself with state and local agencies. Its purpose 
was steadily, not to obtrude, but to efface itself in the 
interest of the people. Its first principle was a pro- 
found belief that ignorant masses, white or black, can- 
not be safely left in the body of a democracy. Its 
working theory was a perfect confidence in the self- 
reliance and creative powers of the people of the South. 
Its supreme desire was to help a great overburdened 
people, struggling with a terribly difficult group of prob- 
lems, but proud, and rightly determined to mould their 
institutions after their own way and with their own 
means. Its high method was faith in the solvent 
power of sympathy and friendship and accurate and 
common understanding between good men and women 
of all sections of a united country. 

Perhaps the chief practical function of the Board was 
the winning of rural communities to a larger policy of 
local taxation for school purposes. In the states where 
the unit of taxation had been the county, assistance 
was given to the "county campaign," the representa- 
tives of the Board helping in the organization of public 
meetings, defraying the actual expenses of effective 
speakers, creating and circulating the literature of the 
subject, and cooperating with the local educational 
leaders in an effort to secure an affirmative popular 
vote on the question of a larger local tax for the benefit 
of the schools. 

Where the unit of taxation was the school district, 
fl5l 



the same methods were employed; the Board worked 
here, as always, solely through the authorized, accepted 
agencies of the locality concerned. These local cam- 
paigns powerfully affected the general school legislation 
of the state. State funds — heretofore the chief resource 
of the Southern school system — rapidly increased, in a 
number of states, from fifty to three hundred per cent. 
Local organizations of women for the improvement of 
rural schoolhouses were established; or, in cases where 
such activities already existed, they were strengthened 
and equipped for still larger work. The movements 
for the formation of school libraries, for the develop- 
ment of high schools, for agricultural education, and 
for manual training all received recognition and re- 
inforcement; Southern governors became educational 
experts and pioneers. Southern legislators debated 
popular education and appropriated two-fifths of their 
total income for public education. The South became 
the inspiring, dynamic, educational section of the 
country. In short, it may be claimed that during the 
decade of the active existence of the Board a stupendous 
educational awakening went forward in state and nation. 
The Board never assumed, nor did its unselfish presi- 
dent ever imagine, that this great social impulse owed 
its origin to the activities of this Board, for the move- 
ment had become irresistible before its formation : Men 
like Robert E. Lee, William H. Ruffner, J. L. M. Curry, 
Atticus G. Haywood, and Calvin H. Wiley had given 
it birth; but in stimulating public opinion, in arousing 

[161 



popular enthusiasm, and in achieving unity of purpose 
anjntvhere, the Board found a part to play and played it 
well with power and decisiveness. In every state, from 
the Gulf to the Potomac, the educational leaders of that 
time will declare that their plans were helped forward 
by the Board and the Conference; and throughout the 
whole nation its methods and impulses were copied and 
modified for the advancement of popular education in 
the Republic. 

The essential idealism of American life is nowhere 
given nobler proof than in the fact that the leader of 
this piece of democratic efficiency and volunteer states- 
manship was an American business man, not trained in 
the academies, but clear of purpose, strong of vision, 
and gifted with a genius for friendship and a capacity 
to see clearly the path ahead. Mr. Ogden had great 
capacity for affairs, but he will endure as a figure of 
humanitarian enthusiasm, a friend of good causes, a 
struggler for the common good; and by the right of 
these forces he has written his name along with such 
names as George Peabody on the roll of the great con- 
structive forces in the educational development of the 
country. He achieved this result, not by giving vast 
sums of money as Mr. Peabody did, though he gave very 
freely of what he had; nor by building great institutions, 
like Armstrong or Mclver, nor by administering great 
trust funds, like Sears and Curry. He achieved it by 
giving himself wholly to a great idea and a great pur- 
pose. The great idea was a belief in the self-reliance, 

[17] 



the justice, the essential wisdom of the people of the 
South, in the handling of the most difficult and delicate 
educational problems presented for solution to any 
people in any time. 

The great purpose was the purpose to understand his 
brethren of the South, to cooperate with them in their 
work, and to help bear such part of their burdens as 
they would permit, because they were national burdens 
and belonged, of right, on the shoulders of the whole 
nation. His fame, therefore, is the fame of an apostle 
of cooperation and service; his genius, the genius of 
interpretation to each other of men and sections; his 
charm, the demeanor of an earnest gentleman to whom 
life and living are serious, beautiful, and reverential 
things; his manner, that of an age now gone which 
greatly exalted manners and bred a quality of behavior 
that seems archaic in our busier age, but which was very 
beautiful and distinguished, and by its passing has 
robbed life of something that sweetened and glorified it. 

It is fitting that the educational forces of the country 
should raise a memorial to Robert Ogden. It is very 
fitting that this memorial should be placed at Hampton 
Institute. The creative spirit of Samuel Chapman 
Armstrong first touched him to higher issues and trans- 
formed the virile young merchant into a student of 
society and a lover of his kind. The problems arising 
from the presence of the African in American life first 
awakened in him the statesman's vision. He saw in 
Hampton Institute the greatest and the sanest experi- 

[18] 



ment station for the training of a backward race yet 
devised by the wit of men. He beheved its deepest 
object was not only to help backward people to a better 
economic life, to breed in them racial self-respect, to 
endow them with skill of hand and a conception of clean 
home life and good citizenship, but, in a large way, to 
protect our national life from deterioration and ineffi- 
ciency. He very firmly believed that there was but one 
thing to do with any human being of any race in the 
world, and that thing was to give him a chance, by 
training him wisely for his day and need. Like Curry 
he held to the faith that ignorance is no remedy for 
anything. His loyalty to Hampton was not whimsical, 
emotional, or sectional loyalty to the training of one 
race alone, but loyalty to the Republic and Democracy 
and to one method of freeing the Republic from a peri- 
lous incubus of ignorance and weakness. 

The chiefest weapon of Robert Curtis Ogden in all 
his record of achievement was absolute self-forgetf ulness. 
I have never known a man intimately who won such 
fine pleasure and happiness through complete self- 
surrender . He was modest, but conscious of leadership ; 
patient, but vigilant; hopeful, but very busy and 
dauntless. He confronted all difficulties with a cheerful 
face and a stout heart, and out of his whole life issued a 
serene and contagious faith in the ultimate good inten- 
tions of his fellow-men that sets him apart as a genuine 
helper to his kind, a friend of men — a great democrat, 
whose constituency was the world. 

119] 



A LIFE W'ELL LIVED* 

We turn back today with affection and honor to this 
life and ask it to teach us how to live and how to die. 
We hear in these days much of the spirit of commercial- 
ism and materialism in our modern world, as though 
business life were a form of warfare and piracy, where 
the unscrupulous win and the honorable lose. But 
here was a man of large and exacting cares, buying and 
selling, organizing and building, with energy and fore- 
sight, yet maintaining among these tumultuous obliga- 
tions an interior quietude of spirit which illumined his 
very countenance, so that — as was said of Moses — "he 
wist not that his face shone." Laurence Oliphant once 
said that the greatest need of England was the need of 
a spiritually minded man of the world — a man who 
could live in the world, sharing its responsibilities, 
accepting its methods, yet detached from it and superior 
to it, as one who makes it an instrument of spiritual 
ends. Well, here was just such a man, needed in Amer- 
ica as much as in England — a spiritually minded man 
of the world, knowing his world and mastering it, yet 

*Selection from Address of Dr. Francis Greenwood Peabody, Ogden 
Memorial Service, Central Presbyterian Church, New York, October 
28, 1913. 

[20] 



more intimately knowing himself and mastering him- 
self, with the power of a spiritual mind; gaining the 
world without losing his owti soul. 

First: Keep business itself clean. Purify the sources. 
Prepare to meet thy God, not on some distant Judg- 
ment Day, but each week, downtown. No prodigality 
in the giving of money can atone for criminality in the 
making of money. The elementary test of the Chris- 
tian character under the conditions of the modern world 
is not in one's giving but in one's getting, not in one's 
church but in one's office. 

The second teaching is this: Attach yourself to a 
great cause, lift your eyes from your desk, enlarge your 
horizon, live in a large world, know how the other half 
lives. This is not only the way of philanthropy, it is 
the way of seK-discovery. It is not only the helping of 
others, but the saving of one's own soul. The seK- 
centered life inevitably shrivels; the seK-forgetting life 
naturally expands, until modest capacities and limited 
gifts may bloom into leadership, power, and even 
genius under the sunshine of a compelling and expand- 
ing cause. That was what happened to this man. The 
consecration of his powers enriched and enlarged them. 
The great cause created in him wisdom and statesman- 
ship, and even touched his lips with eloquence. He was 
among us as one that served and that proved his right 
to lead us all. 

There remains, finally, the condition of efficiency 
which was most marked in our friend. It was the 

[21] 



power of a simple, uncomplicated, and consistent 
religious faith. Speaking of Armstrong in the first 
Founder's Day address at Hampton, Mr. Ogden said, 
"Only upon the high spiritual theory can we explain 
the power of the life which we are now considering." 
The same high spiritual theory is the key which unlocks 
his own character. It was said of Count Zinzendorf, 
the protector of the Moravians, that he could ride the 
wildest horse in his father's stable, and when asked how 
he could be at once a Pietist and an athlete, answered, 
"Only he to whom earthly things are indifferent can 
be their master." The control of the physical was a 
witness to the spiritual. Courage came from above. 
The spiritual mind dominated the animal world. There 
was the same source of tranquillity, assurance, and pa- 
tience in the life of our friend. He had surrendered 
himself, and so he had found himself. He came not to 
do his own will, but the will of Him who sent him, and 
so his own will grew firm and sure. He was indifferent 
to power and fame, and so he won the greater distinc- 
tion of being loved and mourned. Crushing sorrows 
met him, but his own burden grew lighter because he 
took on himself the burdens of other lives. It was 
written of old, "He hath made all things beautiful in 
their time; also he has set Eternity in their hearts." 
That is the story of this modern life. Each event was 
beautiful to him in its time because he had set Eternity 
in his heart. He had heard the great word, "I am come 
not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my 

[22] 



life a ransom for many"; but it was, to him, not a sum- 
mons to sacrifice and resignation so much as a call to 
privilege and joy. 

I shall never forget going one day into the great busi- 
ness establishment which he had created, and mounting 
from floor to floor through the busy crowds until I came 
at last to a little upper room. There, above the noises 
of trade, a dozen of the busiest of business men sat in 
quiet deliberation concerning great projects of national 
welfare, and interchanged their dreams of the better 
America which they saw, not by sight, but by faith. 
It was a symbol of religion in the twentieth century, of 
a faith known by its works, of a service which was per- 
fect freedom, of the spiritualization which is still possi- 
ble for men of the world. One thought of an upper 
room above the bustle of Jerusalem, where the Master 
said, "I have given you an example that ye should do 
even as I have done to you." Nor was the Master 
himself absent; for it was in His name that these men 
met, and it was to them also that He said, " Where two 
or three are gathered together in My name, there am I 
in the midst of them." 



[23 



SELECTION FROM ADDRESS 

By Samuel Chiles Mitchell, Ph.D.* 

President of the Medical College of Virginia 

The projectile power of personality was happily set 
forth in the results of the labors for the South of Robert 
C. Ogden. It is instructive to study his plans for the 
improvement of public schools, for the betterment of 
farming, for the enrichment of rural life, for racial ad- 
justment and social progress. 

Mr. Ogden's personality was contagious. He became 
a centre in organizing constructive friendships. When 
he began his labors in the South for universal education 
there were isolated workers in the several states unac- 
quainted with one another, without any large view of 
the general task, and without an interchange of com- 
mon experience. His presence instantly caused all of 
these workers to leap together, just as atoms form a new 
combination in the laboratory induced by the presence 
of a single new element. He had a rare faculty for the 
discovery of men and of their aptitude for social leader- 
ship. 



*An addi'ess at the Ogden Memorial Service at the Central Presby- 
terian Church, New York, October 26, 1913. 

[24] 



The great thing, however, about Mr. Ogden was not 
merely his sagacity as to the way in which to do the 
things that were really worth while in the national 
life, unerring as his sagacity was in the choice of men and 
measures. It was not even his passionate love for 
people, and especially people disadvantaged and in 
need. But the great thing in him was his faith in the 
capacity of men to grow, his faith in the essential good- 
ness of the human heart, his faith in the subtle potency 
of reason, when trained and rightly directed — in a word, 
his faith in man under the influence of truth and love. 
It was this structural faith that sustained him in his 
great labors, that enabled him to overcome all barriers 
and that swept him forward with a purpose that moved 
majestically, like a force in nature. 

I can never forget the first time that I saw him, when 
he stood upon the platform at Hampton Institute, giv- 
ing a fatherly message to the graduating class of Indian 
and colored youth that stood before him. He seemed 
to breathe into the characters of those people his own 
large spirit of faith, encouragement, aspiration, and 
spirit of social service. 

His philanthropy took naturally the form of a struc- 
tural purpose; namely, to achieve for the South through 
the training of children and through the process of social 
growth, results which all other means, including war 
and politics, had been unable to produce. 

I believe that it was given to a business man to hit 
upon a sounder principle for economic progress, racial 

[25] 



adjustment, and national integration than was vouch- 
safed to any pohtician or general in the annals of 
America. The conquests of education alone are en- 
during. '*One former is worth a dozen reformers." 
What a lurid glare is shed upon the follies and wastes 
of War and Reconstruction in view of the beneficent 
changes wrought by these silent forces of light and love. 
Never was more finely revealed the regenerative im- 
pulse in the heart of man than the signal results of this 
educational movement through the power of public 
opinion. In the case of millions of children, Mr. Ogden 
"thinks in their brain, throbs in their heart, speaks in 
their conscience, and makes their will leap like a resolute 
muscle to its task in fulfilling the will of God.*' 

He was by instinct a leader, a big brother of mankind, 
yet he delighted to follow. In many instances he took 
up other men's tasks and pushed them to a completion 
hardly dreamed of by the men who first conceived the 
enterprises. Like a master builder, he made a wise 
use of all materials at hand. ^Ir. Ogden's sympathies 
grasped the situation in the South, emerging slowly 
from the waste of war and sorrow of defeat. He dis- 
cerned at a glance what an aroused public opinion 
could do for progress through the common schools. 
His strategy consisted, not in money, not in the creation 
of new agencies, not in the attempt to impose ideas and 
institutions upon a people, but in his belief in the ability 
of the people of the South to do for themselves the things 
necessary for their own well-being. He coveted the 

[261 






i MifL® ik^' 



— ^j 

rnl 




lO 



Tlie first Memorial erected to Mr. Robert C. Ogden in tl,.- >,,ut 
Salem Academy and College, Winston-Salem, N. C. 



nlv 



IN THIS CHAPEL WAS HELD 

THE FOURTH CONFERENCE FOR 
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 

APRIL 18-19-20, 1901 

ALL FORMER CONFERENCES W ERE HE LD AT CAPON SPRINGS, W. VA. 

PRESIDENT 

ROBT. C. OGDEN, NEW YORK. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 

WALTER H. PAGE, NEW YORK, RT. REV. EDWARD RONDTHALER, NORTH CAROLINA, 

EUGENE C. BRANSON, GEORGIA 

SECRETARY AND TREASURER 

REV. A. B, HUNTER, RALEIGH, N. C. 

AUDITOR 

WM. J. SCHIEFFELIN, NEW YORK. 

COMMITTEE ON PL.\TFORM AND RESOLUTIONS 

CHAS. D. MCIVER. ALBERT SHAW. CHARLES W. DABNEY 

JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS. RT. REV. EDWARD RONDTHALER 

G. R. GLENN. HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER. W. H. BALDWIN JR 

WALTER H. PAGE. J. L. M. CURRY. 



privilege of sympathizing with the South in accomplish- 
ing these great social ends and in sharing and strength- 
ening the impulses of the men who were bent on their 
accomplishment. 

He had no ambition to be the founder of an institu- 
tion. His name is identified with a movement, and not 
with an institution. He preferred to vitalize the nas- 
cent common school system. He integrated all his 
efforts with what the towns, counties, and states had 
already undertaken. The wisdom of this plan has 
been abundantly justified. He multiplied himself a 
million times by inciting the whole citizenship to get 
underneath the task and to energize the schools as a 
means of social progress. The principle upon which 
he thus acted is of wide and present application. Only 
the state, through the power of public taxation, is equal 
to the task of training all the children for the duties of 
citizenship in democracy. The main thing is to stimu- 
late the people of a community to do well by their own 
schools. The principle of local taxation, the necessity 
of community control, and the power of public opinion 
were the three prime factors in his plan of educational 
campaign for the South. The fruitfulness of his labors 
sprang naturally out of the force inherent in these three 
principles. He built, therefore, not for a day, but for 
the ages. Instead of being able to point to a single 
school that bore his name, he could point to state sys- 
tems of schools into which he had breathed the energy 
of his own great personality. 

[27] 



Mr. Ogden's career was as a golden clasp binding 
together the North and South in sympathy and coop- 
eration for the integrity of national life. He enlisted 
throughout the North men and women of initiative as 
co-workers in the tasks of the South. With him this 
noble band of friends would make an annual pilgrimage 
to the Conference for Education, study the facts in the 
Southern situation for themselves, and strike friend- 
ships there of enduring and fruitful character. It is 
not too much to say that Mr. Ogden in this way changed 
radically the viewpoint of the North with reference to 
the South, rendering editors, publicists, and educators 
in the North sympathetic with the struggle of the South 
and eager to aid on all occasions the forces there making 
for practical righteousness. These kindly interlacing 
influences of the North and South have perhaps done 
more toward reuniting the sections in a common pur- 
pose and like-mindedness than any other single agency 
in the history of our country since the Civil War. 

Thus, in these two ways, Mr. Ogden's efforts in be- 
half of public education have a distinctly national 
bearing: First, by stirring to the very depths the mind 
of the South through the discussion of the vital facts 
involved in democratic education; and, secondly, by 
knitting the sympathies of the leaders in the North 
and in the South, revealing their oneness in the fellow- 
ship of social service and in a common purpose embrac- 
ing the good of the whole country. Never more happily 
was illustrated the meaning of that Scripture, "A little 



child shall lead them,** for it was the efforts to open for 
the child the door to a larger life that brought about 
these signal results in social progress and national uni- 
fication. 

Mr. Ogden gave a new interpretation to the meaning 
of American citizenship. He had a scent for human 
need. He socialized his life and energies. Friendship 
was the essence of his working programme. His hospi- 
tality was kingly, and the list of his friends would make 
up the honor roll of America. There can be no pes- 
simism in the presence of such an example. All prob- 
lems dissolve as retreating clouds before the outreach 
of such a personality. So long as exalted citizenship in 
the private walks of life reveal the sanity and sacrifice 
that characterized Robert C. Ogden, there can be no 
doubt as to America's fulfilling the moral expectancy of 
mankind. "The character of the citizen is the strength 
of the State." 



[29 



ROBERT C. OGDEN 
THE PHILANTHROPIST* 

He brought to the task a business genius, a calm and 
quiet persistence of purpose, a clear judgment, a Chris- 
tian character of serene purity, and an utter lack of self- 
exploitation. 

We are not able now fully and justly to estimate the 
value of his work for the education of the negro and for 
education generally in the South, because he was taken 
from us in the doing. We do not know much of what 
he has done, but we do know its great value. His 
plans, however, like those of wise men generally, were 
so broad, his look into the future was so extended, his 
ideas were so sane and practical, that not for many 
years yet can we weigh all the good that he planned and 
did, in its ultimate effect upon a section of this country 
whose social history has been full of difficult problems, 
and for a race of which this people must be trustees 
and guardians for many decades to come. 

It was my good fortune to be associated with Mr. 



*Selection from an Address of Ex-President William Howard Taft, 
LL.D., Ogden Memorial Services, First Presbyterian Church, Brook- 
lyn, November 9, 1913. 

[30] 



Ogden in several of the many projects for the better- 
ment of the negro and of education, which claimed and 
had his interest and his effective support. When I 
speak of the elevating effect that association with him 
had, I speak from personal knowledge. And the same 
thing is true when I speak of his clear-sightedness, his 
very great experience and knowledge, and his most 
valuable judgment on what was practical and what was 
not, in the objects to be pursued to bring about a bet- 
terment of educational and social conditions in the 
South. 

I cannot close without an expression of the personal 
love that the beautiful character and charming person- 
ality of Mr. Ogden awakened in every one who was 
privileged to come in contact with him. His sense of 
duty as a citizen was not in the slightest degree dimmed 
or made less strong because he had also a wider sym- 
pathy for mankind; but there was united in him with 
energy and a knowledge of how to do things a sweet 
reasonableness, an elevated enthusiasm, and a sane 
courage and hope that one can never forget. He repre- 
sented in the highest sense the real Christian gentle- 
man, and it is no reflection on those whom he has left 
to say that it will be many years before the world will 
look upon his like again. 



31 



TRIBUTES 

BY 

Dr. P. P. Claxton 
Miss J. E. Davis 
David H. Greer 
Edgar Gardner Murphy 
John W. Fries 
Edwin A. Alderman 
Walter H. Page 
S. G. Atkins 
H. E. Fries 



[38 



TRIBUTES 

Concerning the Winston-Salem Conference, Dr. P. 
P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, 
writes : 

The Conference for Education in the South, which 
began its work in a small way at Capon Springs two 
years before the beginning of this century and held its 
first public meeting at Winston-Salem, N. C, in the 
second year of the century, has been beyond question 
one of the most important single factors in the remark- 
able awakening and progress which I have here briefly 
recounted. Some day, when the history of this move- 
ment has been adequately written, this will be seen more 
clearly than is now possible. We are still too close to 
the events to catch the perspective. 

In Mr. Ogden's party were many men and women 
whose names were known to us and to all the world for 
their achievements, but whose faces were unfamiliar 
to most of us. From the South came men who in their 
states and local communities were known for their in- 
terest in education and for their leadership in the mew 
movement for democracy in education. When these 
men and women from the North and the South met 

[35] 



through those three days in the North CaroHna "Twin 
Cities" to learn to know each other and to discuss the 
problems of education in the South as seen from their 
different points of view, the hour of opportunity had 
struck. From that hour to this the movement in the 
interest of which these people had come together has 
gone steadily on, with increasing momentum and in- 
creasing definiteness of purpose and aims. 

Miss J. E. Davis also writes: 

It was at Winston-Salem that, for the first time in 
this Conference, addresses were made by public school 
superintendents, and it was at this meeting also, at the 
suggestion of Dr. Dabney, of the University of Ten- 
nessee, who had made a serious study of the educational 
situation in the South and had presented a startling 
array of figures, that an Executive Board was formed to 
conduct a campaign of education in the South. This 
was the beginning of the Southern Education Board; 
and its natural outgrowth, the General Education 
Board, was incorporated during the following winter. 

As one recalls the inspiring meetings at Winston- 
Salem it is hard to decide what elements most con- 
tributed to the inspiration. Beyond the setting itself, 
which lent not a little charm, perhaps it was the eager 
pressing forward of many men of many minds toward 
one supremely important goal. "Everything in the 
South," said Dr. Dabney, "waits upon the general 
education of the people." Mr. Ogden showed so well, 

[36] 



in the following words, the attitude of his associates 
that they deserve to be widely quoted, being as appli- 
cable now as then to questions affecting the American 
nation : 

"With the past, so far as all present interests of hu- 
manity are concerned, should be buried all questions, 
once real but not now vital, having to do with the right 
of secession, with slavery, with the unsavory record of 
reconstruction, with the suspicion and doubt of post- 
bellum alienation. Practical business judgment de- 
cides powerfully and positively against the resurrection 
of the settled issues of a dead past. They have interest 
historically in enabling the man of affairs and the stu- 
dent of social conditions to ascertain present facts, but, 
to the mind of the American patriot, have no further 
popular function and require no discussion.'* 

The battle-cry of the Conference became, "A common 
school education for the children of all the people," and 
the meetings resolved themselves into a committee of 
the whole to discuss ways and means by which this 
colossal undertaking might be carried to completion. 
The task is still unfinished; but the impetus given to it 
by this Conference and by the numerous agencies which 
it has assisted or set in motion has already produced 
changes without parallel in our educational history, 
and will in the end accomplish the desired result. 

Events and activities of all sorts paved the way for 
the Athens meeting in 1902, in which year enthusiasm 
for the "Ogden Movement" was at the flood. Never 

[37] 



did the "Ogden Special'* carry a more distinguished 
company; never was the trip through the South longer 
or more interesting. It has been spoken of as " the prog- 
ress of a King of Friendship." In cities en route, the 
party was met with carriages, escorted to the chief 
places of interest, entertained at teas or luncheons, and 
showered with flowers. At some stations the school 
children assembled and sang a welcome to Mr. Ogden 
— "the children's friend." 

Athens — the one-hundred-year-old university town 
with its wide avenues, delightful old homes with colon- 
nades of tall white pillars, surrounded by large gardens 
— what recollections the name conjures up of wonderful 
Southern hospitality from people full of kindliness and 
charm! They gave up their best rooms; they loaded 
their tables with delicacies; they anticipated every wish 
of their guests. 

Mr. Ogden was a notable presiding oflBcer, alert and 
quick, but having great dignity and poise. His face 
beamed with light, illumining his extremely forceful 
personality. Those who accompanied him on his 
Southern trips remember with an inward chuckle the 
reflections, asides, and comments which his sense of 
humor prompted him to make, and they remember, too, 
how his great tender heart was touched by the pathos 
of any human-interest story. 



38 



TRIBUTES OF SOUTHERNERS TO ROBERT 
CURTIS OGDEN 

You have had the wisdom to plan, the courage to 
attempt, and the energy to execute a great and noble 
enterprise whose benefits are so widespread and far- 
reaching that they cannot be calculated or measured. — 
David H. Greer. 

Back and forth you have knit the comradeships that 
have given to individual effort the confidence and the 
social power of a common cause. 

Your instrument of service has been, not money noi 
rare executive capacity — though you have given both 
— but friendship; a friendship highminded, loyal, and 
transparently sincere. — Edgar Gardner Murphy. 

The great movement of which Mr. Robert C. Ogden 
is the acknowledged leader is unique in the annals of 
philanthropy, in that it is not intended to found an 
institution as a monument, to promulgate an idea, or 
to exploit a system. — John W. Fries. 

I hail you as a tireless worker for men, a gentle diplo- 
mat of peace, a mediator between the best in sections 

[39] 



long estranged but no longer, a man of the world and 
yet to do its work, a stout friend of all good causes. — 
Edwin A. Alderman. 

Mr. Ogden opened long vistas and disclosed large 
visions to his faithful followers. He stimulated South- 
ern thought; built up Southern character; and fired 
Southern men to the most patriotic endeavor. — Walter 
H. Page. 

Robert C. Ogden, with his broad vision, genial na- 
ture, and ready wit, was the President and the soul of 
the Conference, and won the hearts of us all. I remem- 
ber how, when, to relieve the strain of a long session, 
he asked the audience to stand and sing "America'* and 
some one asked why might not the windows be raised 
to let in the air, Mr. Ogden replied, "The air is in the 
song of course," and so it was, and is. — P. P. Claxton. 

On one occasion I called at his office when he was 
very busy and a great many people were trying to see 
him. Being admitted to his private office I realized 
what it meant for so busy a man as he to see me; and, 
noting that he did not manifest the slightest impatience, 
although my call was of no possible business significance, 
I could not refrain from emphasizing my appreciation, 
and I strongly apologized for interrupting him in the 
midst of his busy hours, expressing my regret at the 
same time that it was necessary for me to intrude upon 

[401 



him. In his rare, kindly toned voice he urged me to 
desist, and would not accept my apology, saying that, 
on the contrary, the debt was his, that he should thank 
me for calling with my story and with information about 
the improvement of conditions among my people in 
the South. He insisted that such a report was of dis- 
tinct value to him in keeping alive and stimulating his 
missionary interest in those who needed sympathy and 
help. His manner and words at this time impressed 
me profoundly and gave me new hope, and a new and 
ennobled idea as to the human impulses of the Christian 
business man. — S. G. Atkins, 



41] 



ROBERT CURTIS OGDEN 
AN UNOFFICIAL STATESMAN 

It was my high privilege and great pleasure to know 
Mr. Ogden and have more or less personal association 
with him from 1876 on to the time of his death — a 
period of nearly forty years. I was attracted by his 
buoyant personality and was always thrilled by the 
enthusiasm he aroused among the large company of 
Sunday-school teachers and scholars under his leader- 
ship. 

I had known General Armstrong and was interested 
in the work at Hampton, and I soon discovered Mr. 
Ogden's heart was deeply enlisted in that great educa- 
tional experiment. My association with Mr. Ogden 
as a trustee at Hampton began in 1884. All these 
years of close association revealed to me more and more 
the unusually noble qualities of undaunted energy and 
persistence and faith with a unique humility that never 
dimmed the enthusiasm of Robert C. Ogden. His 
presence was always an inspiration to students and 
teachers and visitors. IVIr. Odgen organized, in the 
early years of Hampton, annual visits of selected parties, 
which showed his original quality of mind. These visits 

[421 



of representative men and women are midoubtedly one 
of the factors in the ever-deepening appreciation of the 
work of Hampton which has made it notable among 
schools of any character. 

The beautiful personal friendship which existed be- 
tween General Armstrong and Mr. Og^en was in itself 
an inspiring lesson of comradeship. The quality of 
personality, which is the great glory of human nature, 
was beautifully marked in the life and character of 
Mr. Ogden. His was a personality that had the splen- 
did quality of being able to express itself freely and 
strongly to groups of men and women as well as to 
individuals. He had also the quality of drawing out 
by his beautiful consideration and reverent regard for 
all, young and old, the best that was in those who were 
his companions for the time. There are many scores 
of men and women among the finest of our country's 
folk who will never forget hours dominated by his per- 
sonal equation, which were made remarkable in addition 
by the brilliant scintillations drawn forth from others 
present by his comradeship and notable social qualities. 
His long life experience, reaching back to Army life 
in the Civil War and through varied experiences as a 
merchant in both New York and Philadelphia, his 
never-failing church activity and Sunday-school work 
and unnumbered services as trustee of organizations of 
most varied character, prepared him for the position of 
unique leadership in educational evolution which made 
him a most prominent figure in the advance movements 

[431 



in education which have signalized the twentieth cen- 
tury. 

It was my good fortune to be of the company invited 
to Capon Springs, of which Mr. Ogden was so prominent 
a member. The discussions at that conference indi- 
cated to all the great possibilities from a nation-wide 
cooperation in dealing with the special problems in 
education which confronted the South. It was Mr. 
Ogden's strong and confident imagination which ener- 
gized the company to believe that the time had come 
for widening and strengthening the thought which had 
been the fruitful result of the Capon Springs confer- 
ences. Many thousands throughout the South who 
were not able to be at Winston-Salem, Athens, Knox- 
ville, Birmingham, Little Rock, Richmond, Nashville, 
and other places which gave hospitable welcome to the 
Conference of Education in the South, have followed the 
impetus of that great movement and undoubtedly 
countless thousands in coming years are to derive bene- 
fit from the enthusiasm generated at these conferences. 
The Southern Education Board was constituted by 
Mr. Ogden by direction of the Conference held at 
Winston-Salem. The men thus brought together by 
Mr. Ogden, some of whom had not before known each 
other, were exceptional from many points of view, and 
the work accomplished by this Board with the small 
income of $30,000 a year through a dozen years mgiy 
well be cited as one of the most extraordinary move- 
ments in history. The statistics gathered by the Exec- 

[44] 



utive Committee under the direction of President 
Alderman and Dr. Claxton, now United States Com- 
missioner of Education, and their associates, were a 
revelation to the whole country. It was discovered 
that the universal poverty of the South following the 
unlimited disasters which war brings, and continues in 
its trail for generations, had so reduced the productive 
capacity of the population that the whole Southland 
had been able to give only eighty-three days of schooling 
to the average man of twenty-one years and over in the 
South at the beginning of this century. It was found 
that in one of the states of the South the average prod- 
uct per capita of the men employed in farming — owners, 
tenants, and hired men — was less than $200 per annum. 
This against an average of $1,100 in the State of Iowa. 
Mr. Ogden is entitled to much of the credit for the 
evidence that this was not sufficient economic basis for 
a proper educational system. 

The General Education Board was organized about 
this time, and undoubtedly the unique work of the 
Southern Education Board under Mr. Ogden's leader- 
ship was an important factor in defining the lines on 
which the General Education Board was organized. 
In fact, its first work was directed to the study of the 
problem of education in the South, and the first million 
dollars given to it was for that work. IVIr. Ogden was 
one of the first members of this Board and was always 
faithful and self-sacrificing of his personal comfort and 
even health in giving his services on its call. The 

[45] 



increase of money annually devoted to education in the 
South from all sources by fifty million dollars during 
the first ten years of the life of the Southern Education 
Board undoubtedly resulted in part from the inspiration 
and arousing of the people which the statistical and 
campaign work of the Southern Education Board gave. 
This work resulted in the coining of a new designation 
of the work of a modern publicist; and it is undoubtedly 
true that when one reads to-day of "Unofficial States- 
manship" there arises before the minds of those who 
knew him, and also of others who did not have that 
good fortune, the splendid figure and noble head and the 
frank, outlooking gaze with the modest and friendly 
greeting of Robert Curtis Ogden. 

It is probably true that no one man has done so much 
personal work in bringing about an interweaving of 
minds and intermingling of hearts of men and women 
of the North and men and women of the South as this 
true believer in all men, who had faith in the real unifi- 
cation of the country and in the sure result of patience 
in well doing. All hail to this true Statesman ! 

George Foster Peabody. 



[46 



A MASTER OF MEN 

I was in New York attending a Board meeting one 
day about the time Mr. Ogden moved from Philadelphia 
to New York and opened the new Wanamaker store. 
I overheard some one say, '*New York has received a 
great addition to her moral and religious strength in 
the coming to this city of Mr. Robert C. Ogden." 
That chance remark regarding a man theretofore un- 
known to me made a deep impression on my mind. I 
do not recall who said it; I only know that he knew 
his man. 

I first met Mr. Ogden a few days after he invited me 
to become a member of the Southern Education Board 
in the summer of 1901. From that day until the day 
of his death he was my friend. 

Mr. Ogden was a recogniized leader in that great 
movement for better education in the Southern States, 
which has received such large recognition and apprecia- 
tion in later years. It would be difficult to enumerate 
his manifold contributions to that movement. I think 
his chief contribution lay in the fact that he brought 
men of like mind and purpose together, and enabled 
them to know and understand one another. These 

[47] 



men of the Southern States, thus brought together, 
inaugurated and directed what I believe to be the most 
significant movement in public education which our 
country has ever seen. 

Mr. Ogden was imposing in figure, benign of coun- 
tenance, with a voice of rare power and resonance; he 
was a statesman in the best sense of that term, an 
orator of great power, and a "master of men." No one 
ever met him without at once believing in him and 
trusting him. He was a successful merchant, a man of 
vision and foresight, with a wealth of acquaintance 
and experience, all of which he brought to bear on that 
leadership for which we all honor him. He gave liber- 
ally of his money and made his gifts more valuable by 
the greater gift of himself. He was modest but did 
not lack courage; he effaced himself, but at the proper 
time and place he had the quality of magnificent self- 
assertion. 

Other men and other agencies have done large things 
for education in the Southern States, but to Robert C. 
Ogden should be accorded the position of Field Mar- 
shal. 

April 26, 1918. Wallace Butteick. 



4S 



MR. ROBERT C. OGDEN-AS A PATRIOT 

The Patriot— for his Country— is called to do or die, 
'Midst the noise— and smoke— and fury of the fray, 
While this calls for manly courage, there's a different 

kind of Patriot, 
Who is recognized throughout our land to-day. 

As a man of deep conviction. He with patience and with 

care, 
Had decided he was forced to take a stand, 
There was no blare of trumpets or friends to urge him 

on, 
As he studied every section of our land. 

His task was all the harder, for the wounds of former 

strife 
Were deep: it seemed as though they'd never, ever, 

heal — 
Yet he counted all 'twould cost him— if he lost this 

final fight 
'Gainst illiteracy, that all the South was made to feel. 

Some few there were quite certain that the effort made 

would fail, 
That the Conference could not hold the forces long; 

[49] 



Yet under his direction, there were gathered from the 

Nation 
Men of thought and action — big, and bold, and strong. 

As, from year to year, they gathered, and his plans 

they all considered. 
They forgot their lack of knowledge in the past. 
For the Nation was before them, and to fit it for its 

future 
They must know no North or South nor East or West. 

—H. E. Fries. 



[50 



IVffi. ROBERT C. OGDEN— AS A STATESMAN 

Through the portals of our Nation 

He had seen the thousands coming 

From great cities and strange lands across the sea. 

And he thought of future ages, 

"When these thousands, by slow stages, 

Might control our land predestmed for the free. 

He knew well the colored race 

Have with us a lasting place, 

And though once held back in bonds they now are free; 

To prepare them for their station, 

As a part of this great Nation, 

Was a task no human eye could well foresee. 

Next in each and every portion 

Of our great and glorious land 

He sought for wise, and true, and noble men. 

Who would give their time or money, 

To consider every section. 

And to the weak, the greatest aid extend. 

He, with others, oft was thinking, 
That this Nation has a mission 
To perform among the nations of the earth — 

[511 



And to perform this mission 

We'll need men in every station, 

To melt and mold our men of foreign birth. 

Already we are seeing 

The results of this right thinking, 

In the lives of studious maiden and of men : 

They should oft repeat the story. 

And to him give all the glory. 

As the "Unofficial Statesman" — that He's been. 

— H. E. Fries. 



52] 



MR. ROBERT C. OGDEN— AS A CHRISTIAN 
GENTLEMAN 

Through the years of early manhood 
He withstood each test and strain, 
While amid the trials of business 
He was found each year the same, 
Always battling for the right, 
Always bold, and fair, and square. 
He was modest and retiring. 
Yet impressed men everywhere. 

Thousands came in daily contact 
With this man of gentle ways — 
Learned from him, that " true politeness'* 
Always draws one, "always pays." 
Yet he taught another lesson. 
Oft forgot along the way — 
That the God of Sabbath morning 
Is the God of every day. 

He would seek the poor and helpless, 
Aid them through some other friend. 
Ne'er destroyed their independence, 
While his aid he'd gladly lend; 
[53] 



All in need, to him, were brethren. 
For he knew no Church or State, 
Once convinced that help was needed 
He'd ne'er stop or hesitate. 

Glad we see a grand Memorial 
Built in honor of our friend; 
But he built his own memorial. 
It will last till time shall end. 
He will live through all the ages. 
In all portions of our land. 
Not as Statesman or as Patriot, 
But — as Christian Gentleman. 

— H. E. Frie,g. 



[54 



MH. ROBERT C. OGDEN— AS A MAN 

Come ! Gather the children and tell them a tale, 
A clear lighted story of heart and of vision, 
One of the present, of love and devotion, 
One that shines bright in its own clear precision; 

The tale of a man full of vigor and strength, 

Who went forthy mid the darkness and light. 

And always you found him, where duty had called him, 

Arrayed for the right — in each fight. 

'Midst carnage and strife and where cannon groaned 

forth, 
'Midst straining and stress of each day, 
*Midst worries of business and troubles of hfe 
He led men — and taught them — to pray. 

In mingling with men he saw their great needs. 
He thought not of self but of others. 
He gave from his store, and gathered much more, 
Contending that all men are brothers. 

A true man they found him in bright balmy youth. 

He kept faith with his friends later on. 

He rang true in business, in Church and in State, 

But truest and best in his home. 

—H. E, Friei. 

[55\ 



